Verizon Wireless today changed prices for its monthly unlimited and prepaid calling plans. The plans will be available to new and current customers; existing subscribers can adopt a new plan without extending their current contract.

Beginning Monday, Nationwide Unlimited Talk plans for individuals (that's voice calls only) will cost $69.99 per month. If you want messaging, you'll need to pay for them individually or add a texting plan. On the other hand, you can get both voice and messaging with a Nationwide Unlimited Talk & Text plan for $89.99 per month.

Groups on a family plan also will have new unlimited options. For voice calls only, the Nationwide Unlimited Talk Family SharePlan will be $119.99 per month and the Nationwide Unlimited Talk & Text Family SharePlan will be $149.99 per month. All family plans include the first two lines of service. Verizon also has discontinued the $19.99 monthly data option.

On the prepaid side, customers can get unlimited service for $5 more per month than their contract counterparts. That makes the Prepaid Monthly Unlimited Talk plan $74.99 per month and the Prepaid Monthly Unlimited Talk & Text $94.99 per month.

We're less ambivalent with the news on the data side. Remember that pesky $9.99 25-megabyte data plan that's required on texting/multimedia phones like the Samsung Rogue and the LG EnV Touch? Well that's being expanded to all of the carrier's 3G multimedia phones like the LG Chocolate Touch, the LG EnV3, the LG VX8360, the Motorola Entice W766, the Nokia 7705 Twist, and the Samsung Alias 2.

Other data options won't change. Customers using basic phones will continue to pay $1.99 per megabyte if they don't pick a data plan. Also, the $29.99 per month for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Android devices won't change.